1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to activation of electronic devices. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for providing regulatory updates to electronic devices during activation of the electronic devices.
2. Related Art
Recent improvements in computing power and wireless networking technology have significantly increased the capabilities of electronic devices. For example, laptop computers, tablet computers, portable media players, smartphones, digital media receivers, video game consoles, and/or other modern computing devices are typically equipped with WiFi and/or cellular capabilities that allow the computing devices to retrieve webpages, stream audio and/or video, share desktops and/or user interfaces (UIs), and/or transfer files wirelessly among one another.
These electronic devices may require regulatory approval from individual countries before the electronic devices can be operated in the countries. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States may assign an FCC Identification (ID) to radio frequency hardware in the electronic device to authorize use of the hardware in the United States. In turn, a regulatory mark for use of the electronic device in a particular country must appear on the electronic device before the electronic device can be used in the country. For example, regulatory marks for the electronic device may be found in a “settings” application within the electronic device to indicate the countries within which the electronic device is approved for operation.
However, regulatory approval may not be obtained from some countries until after manufacturing of the electronic device has already begun. As a result, versions of the electronic device that were produced before a country's regulatory approval was obtained may lack the required regulatory mark(s) from the country. To enable use of the previously produced versions in the country, each previously produced electronic device may be manually removed from packaging, updated with a new software build containing the complete set of regulatory marks, and repackaged for subsequent distribution and sale. Consequently, timing issues associated with regulatory approval of electronic devices by individual countries may negatively impact the manufacturing, sale, and use of the electronic devices in the countries.